


Respite

by Avalooon



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Gay Panic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29576583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avalooon/pseuds/Avalooon
Summary: A take on Rapunzel day one focused on Cassandra and Rapunzel changing relationship on the road as compared to in Corona.
Relationships: Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46





	Respite

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to silentepidemic for helping me so much with the development and writing of this fic.

Erases what you wish to forget. As Cassandra got ready to sleep the words ran through her mind. There was much she wished to forget, in truth she wished to scrub this entire journey from memory and existence. She understood its importance and would protect Rapunzel through the end and beyond, but that did not mean she had to like it. Before the journey Cassandra had been, no, content was not the right word to use, contentment was a fleeting dream for her. But she had understood where she stood in life, and in relationship to Rapunzel. Now whenever she looked at Rapunzel she found words stuck in her mouth and a hot bothersome cloud of emotions filled in chest. It was bad enough that the love she’d locked away long ago in a hidden lagoon was bubbling back up again, that at least she knew how to handle regardless of how painful it might be. What she could not deal with was the resentment and anger. Every step of this journey Rapunzel had been rushing headlong into danger against her advice. Cassandra would not have begrudged her a few foolish mistakes, it was Rapunzel’s first time outside Corona and it stood to reason she wouldn’t be prepared for everything. What irked Cassandra was how despite constantly misjudging the situation and putting everyone in danger Rapunzel continued to ignore her advice and act in foolhardy ways. She rolled over onto her side, trying to find a more comfortable position, doing so sent a lance of pain through her arm and her anger flared again. Of course whenever Rapunzel’s actions did have consequences they landed on her. It was stupid, why couldn’t Rapunzel just listen to her? Then none of this would have ever happened.

“Cass I can’t sleep.” 

“Rapunzel, it’s only been two minutes. Give it some time.”

“No Cass, I need to talk about what’s going on between us.” Prior to this journey those words would have filled Cassandra with incredible excitement, intense fear and shame too but at least there’d be some good. Now they only stoked the embers of her anger. Typical Rapunzel, wanting to talk it all out despite the fact that she was still insisting she had done the right thing.

“Raps, I don’t know what you mean, now if you’ll excuse me I’m trying to sleep.”

“Cass you can ignore it and try to move past it all you want but I know you’re upset.”

“Look Raps, you can do and think whatever you want, but don’t try and tell me how I’m feeling.”

“You’re my friend Cass, of course I can tell what you’re feeling, even if you’d rather not acknowledge it.” It brought a slight smile to Cassandra’s lips that after being so oblivious to her love Rapunzel thought she understood her now.

As Cassandra turned to face Rapunzel her head hit the potion cart, knocking the memory wand into her hand. “Rapunzel, the only thing I’m annoyed about right now is that you won’t let me get to sleep.”

“Please Cassandra, we can’t just forget about what happened, I care about you and you’re obviously hurting, help me fix this.” 

“I wish you would just forget about it Rapunzel!” The wand in her hand started to glow but she didn’t notice. “Not everything is going to go your way and you have to learn to live with that!” As she stopped talking Cassandra noticed the glow from the wand only moments before it exploded into a dazzle of purple scarlet light.

____________________

Cassandra blinked her eyes open as the first rays of sun hit them. Her head ached as she sat up and looked around. Slowly the events of last night trickled their way into her head. She had been arguing with Rapunzel when, that’s right the memory wand had activated. Cassandra didn’t feel like she had forgotten anything, but then again how would you know if you had. She glanced around and saw Rapunzel still sleeping peacefully on the ground, with any luck she’d also be fine and they could get back on track. Cassandra walked over to where she slept and gently shook Rapunzel awake. “Hey Raps, rise and shine, we’ve got to get going.”

“Mhm, good morning Cass.” As Rapunzel stretched and looked around the last vestiges of sleep left her face, pushed out by confusion. “Uh Cass, what’s going on here? Where are we?”

Cassandra groaned, of course the wand worked, at least Rapunzel still remembered her though. “Okay Raps, I’ll explain everything in just a second, so could you tell me what you last remember?

“I mean I had just gone to sleep after the whole debacle with the day of hearts, and then I woke up here. So, what is happening?” 

“Okay then, got some stuff to fill you in on, and try not to freak out. We’ve left Corona to fulfill your destiny which apparently involves following the black rocks to some place called the dark kingdom, we’ve come across a lot of strange stuff on the way. Most recently and relevantly there was a memory wand from that cart that accidentally went off.” Cassandra felt a twinge of guilt but it was for the best, this Rapunzel didn’t need to be burdened with their quarrel. Cassandra considered telling Rapunzel about the others, but decided against it. Talking about the caravan and the rest of the group was a bad idea, Rapunzel would want to go to them and things would only get more complicated, she would deal with this herself. Cassandra anxiously watched Rapunzel’s face, hoping she would handle it okay. 

“So let me get this right? It’s just us, out in the wide open world on an adventure?” Cassandra nodded. Rapunzel pondered for a moment, her face still before. . . “Cass, that sounds incredible! What’s the coolest thing we’ve seen? What type of people have we met? Have there been any cool animals, oh there must’ve been. Ooh, wait, what sort of food have we eaten?” Rapunzel’s face was filled with a massive smile as she practically bounced up and down from excitement. Cassandra chuckled, of course Raps would respond like this.

“Easy there sunshine, there’ll be plenty of time to talk later. For now I’m going to go look for a way to fix your memory.” Cassandra walked back over to the cart and started rifling through the drawers, after a moment she found the book that had accompanied the wand. “Here we go, let’s see it says the effect of the wand can be undone with a simple recipe… that consists of 52 ingredients, fun. Well then, guess we shouldn’t waste any time, you ready to go Raps?” 

Cassandra turned around and saw a giant Rapunzel with vibrant rainbow colored hair. There was a poof of light and Rapunzel returned to normal, Cassandra steadily stared at her. Rapunzel giggled. “Sorry Cass, they just seemed so fun, I couldn’t help myself.” She bounced over to Cassandra and grabbed her hand, Cassandra had to resist the urge to break away. “Anyway let’s go, I can’t wait to see everything there is out here.”

____________________

Cassandra watched as Rapunzel shimmied up a tree towards a nest that held the promise of one of the ingredients they needed. “Be careful up there Raps, some of those branches look a bit thin.” Glancing down at the recipe again Cassandra sighed, it was already getting into the afternoon and they’d only got half the ingredients. If she wanted to finish this today they might have to split up, it made sense to do but the idea of leaving Rapunzel on her own rubbed Cassandra the wrong way. Cassandra was snapped out of her reverie by the sounds of cracking branches. Rapunzel was wavering wildly high in the tree, Cassandra rushed forward. “I’ve got you Raps, it’s okay.”

Rapunzel fell from the tree into Cassandra’s waiting arms. The impact sent painful tremors out from her bad arm and throughout her body and she had to bite back a gasp. Rapunzel smiled and threw her arms around Cassandra. “Thanks Cass, sorry for worrying you. The mother bird was around and startled me when I was getting the eggs.” Cassandra felt a rush of heat run through her face and made a mental note to look into and fix the insulation problems her armor must have. 

“It’s fine Raps, don’t worry about it.” Cassandra let Rapunzel out of her arms and stepped back a bit. “Did you grab the eggs?”

Rapunzel grinned and opened her hands revealing two small colorful eggs, their hue made Cassandra recall what it was like to soar high through the sky, and other less fun memories. “Here they are.” She handed them over to Cassandra and walked around her friend so that she could settle her face onto Cassandra’s shoulders and stare up at her. “So, are you going to tell me the fun story you’re thinking of, or just stand there with that look on your face?”

Cassandra very carefully breathed in and out, trying to ignore the proximity of Rapunzel’s face to hers. She gently pushed Rapunzel’s head off her shoulders, Rapunzel gave an indignant sigh, and moved far enough away for her heart to stop pounding. “That story, it’s not exactly what I’d call fun.” Cassandra sighed and sat down on a log. “We had only left Corona a while ago, we were walking through this beautiful forest by the cliffs of Koto. It was nice, at first, you made us lovely flower crowns, there was this glowing moss you made us use as makeup. After a while we came across a house. Outside it were these two flamboyant people having a tea party. You convinced me to join them, when we drank the tea we turned into birds.” Cassandra rolled one of the eggs in the palm of her hand as Rapunzel tried to stifle her giggles. “It’s okay to laugh, it was fun at first. It was great flying I admit it, once I got over,” Cassandra paused and stared at Rapunzel, “well, once you helped me get over my fears it was wonderful. Meandering through the sky together with you, free of everything holding us down.” Cassandra smiled and stared off into the distance.

After a couple of moments of reminiscing Rapunzel coughed lightly. “It sounds lovely Cass, I wish I could’ve been there. Well I guess I was there, but you know what I mean.” 

Cassandra chuckled. “Yah, that part was lovely. When we were done flying we went back, and it turned out the people there had no intention of turning us back into humans.” A crack echoed out and Cassandra looked down to see that she had been gripping the log firmly enough to break it. She tried to still the shaking that ran through her body and continued. “We beat them, and started turning this whole flock of other people they must’ve trapped back into people again. You wanted to turn the others back before yourself and..” Cassandra's voice shook and she stopped talking. She stared at the egg in her trembling hand. 

A gentle hand touched her shoulder and she looked up to see Rapunzel. “It’s okay Cass, it’s okay. You got through it.” Rapunzel settled on the log besides Cassandra and wrapped her arms around her. Rather than the nervous energy that usually filled Cassandra upon contact with another person she found the closeness comforting.

Steadying herself Cassandra continued. “You were the last person left to transform, and… there were no eggs left and…. I was so scared Raps, I watched the light fade from your eyes, I, I thought I lost you.” Cassandra leaned into Rapunzel’s hug, resting their heads against each other. “There was another egg though. Watching you turn back into a person, I was so relieved.” The two sat together taking joy in the presence of the other while a heavy but comfortable silence filled the air between them.

____________________

Cassandra pulled up a root and smiled contentedly. It was the last of the ingredients that she needed to gather, assuming Rapunzel had been able to get them all, they’d be able to brew the potion tonight and fix everything tomorrow morning. Thinking of Rapunzel she should probably find her and make sure everything was okay. After a few minutes of wandering the woods calling out for Rapunzel she heard an answering call and followed. Cassandra emerged into a clearing to find Rapunzel staring up a cliff face. “Hey Raps, is everything alright, you get the ingredients.”

“Mhmh, well, all except one. It’s this herb called Minne, I’m not familiar with it but it looks like it’s growing up there on the cliff. I was going to get it but figured it’d be better to wait for you. Wouldn’t want to get hurt and inconvenience me once I get my memories back.” It was a very Rapunzel thing to do, kind and considerate of everyone, despite that Cassandra found herself surprised by the behavior. On the road Rapunzel had by no means become less kind but she had been a less than excellent judge of danger and Cassandra was happy that Rapunzel was acting more aware right now.

“Thanks for waiting Raps, I appreciate it. The cliff looks fine to climb so as long as nothing strange happens you should be okay.” Cassandra watched as Rapunzel carefully scaled the cliff and grabbed the Minne. Rapunzel safely descended the cliff face again. She triumphantly held up the Minne as she came over to Cassandra. Cassandra smiled at her and double checked the list of ingredients. “With Minne we have everything, we should be able to have the potion ready by the morning.”

____________________

Cassandra tossed the last of the ingredients into the cauldron and watched as it bubbled and simmered away. She gave it a few more stirs and settled down beside it. After a few minutes Rapunzel walked over to her with a somber look on her face. “Hey Cass.” Rapunzel sat besides her and stared into the fire. “I wanted to ask, is everything okay on the journey, between you and me that is?”

“Of course Raps.” Cassandra forced herself to smile and tried to laugh it off. “What would even make you ask something like that?”

“Well, I was getting ready to sleep and I found this in my dress.” Rapunzel pulled out a much folded piece of paper and handed it over. Hesitantly Cassandra unfolded it to find a monstrous version of herself with bestial arm and blood stained sword. She recoiled and had to restrain herself from throwing it in the fire. Rapunzel stared steadily at her. “So I’ll ask again, are you sure nothing’s going wrong between us.”

Cassandra was silent for a moment,trying to restrain herself and the flood building up inside her. “Nothing going wrong? Oh yah, nothing’s wrong all right, aside from the fact that apparently everything I do isn’t worth the slightest bit of gratitude or appreciation. That my advice is worth less than nothing, what could possibly cause issues about seeing the person you care about the most in the world disregard everything you do for them, everything you’ve sacrificed for them only for them to portray you as a monster!” Cassandra slammed her good hand against a tree setting the nearby birds to flight. Cassandra slowly steadied herself and stilled her breathing. She tossed the drawing into the fire and sat down again, head in her hands. “I’m- I didn’t mean to explode like that, just, it’s complicated alright, and there’s no need for you to get involved with it.”

“Cass what do you mean ‘no need to get involved’, it involves me and my best friend, you can’t honestly act like that and expect me to not want to help. Something is going wrong here and I’m going to do whatever I can to help you.” Rapunzel firmly grabbed her hand and Cassandra winced in pain. A look of panic came over Rapunzel’s face and she let go. “Oh, Oh No Cass! Is, is your arm hurt? Why didn’t you tell me?” Cassandra wrenched her arm away and rested it on top of her legs. She stared off into the darkness. Rapunzel watched her for a minute before ever so gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “Cass, I won’t know anything if you don’t tell me, if you want you can ignore the whole thing and in the morning it’ll all be gone, and I’m not going to press you, I learned just the other day that when you want to handle things yourself you’re usually correct. But, I am here for you if you need me” Rapunzel retreated to the other side of the fire. 

Still staring out into the darkness Cassandra spoke. “Thank you Raps.” She was silent for another minute before resuming. “You’re right, you and me, we had been, well fighting maybe isn’t the right word, but things weren’t easy. The world out here is wonderful, full of so many beautiful interesting things, but it’s also full of danger, and well you didn’t seem to realize that. Time after time you would ignore my judgment and rush into dangerous situations where I didn’t know if I’d be able to keep you safe. Raps, the thought of losing you is the worst thing I could imagine, and, I’ve had to watch it nearly happen so many times out here.” Rapunzel had heard Cassandra’s voice move around as she talked and now felt Cassandra settle down beside her. “My hand, well my entire arm, got hurt recently. We were inside this Great Tree, according to Adira it was the sight of some ancient civilization, and found another incantation. It drew on the power of the moonstone and when you tried it, things went badly.” She trailed off and Rapunzel felt a tremor run through her back. “It was okay though, Adira was able to save you. The trouble came later, Hector had been, I don’t know, fused with the tree somehow and was attacking us. You thought that the only way to save us was the decay incantation and you used it, but again you couldn’t stop. The tree was coming down, and you just kept going.” Cassandra was trembling as she spoke but her voice remained steady. “I was able to save you Raps, all it took was my hand. Despite it all I was able to save you.” 

Slowly Cassandra undid one of her gauntlets and let it slide off her hand to the ground. Under the flickering light of the fire Rapunzel couldn’t fully make out her arm but what she could see was a mess of burns and scar tissue. “Cass, for everything you must’ve done for me out here, thank you. You’re the best friend I could ever ask for, and I’m so sorry that I would ever take you for granted. You’re the best thing in my life Cassandra, I just hope you can forgive me for not making that clear out here.” Rapunzel gently wrapped her arms around Cassandra and embraced her. “I’m not going to remember any of this so I can’t promise you that I’m going to change, but I want you to remember that I appreciate everything you do for me even if I’m too caught up in my own issue to notice it.”

The acknowledgement filled Cassandra with happiness and contentment. “I will Raps. I am sorry I had to burden you with this, you’re only here for a day and you have to spend it comforting me.”

“Cass never feel like you have to apologize for that, like I said you’re my best friend, what could possibly be more important or worthwhile. Besides, you're constantly taking care of me, only fair for me to pay it back when I can.” Cassandra tentatively hugged Rapunzel back. Few words were exchanged for the rest of the evening as they took solace from their troubles in the company of each other.

____________________

“Hey Raps, I think the potion’s ready.” Cassandra set down the bottled potion as Rapunzel came over. “Apparently after you drink it you should get your memories back, and forget all this, pretty much right away. So I guess while I still can I should say thank you. You can probably tell from everything that happened last night but this journey has been rough for me, and you being willing to listen and understand helps a lot.”

“Cass, would it be okay if I did a bit more for you before I go? I was thinking that I could leave you something to remember this by.” She held up her notebook. “I thought that a drawing might be nice, something to remind you how much I appreciate you.”

“I’d love that Raps.” Cassandra followed Rapunzel’s directions on how to pose and Rapunzel settled down to begin her work. Often Cassandra had found that the focus Rapunzel displayed when drawing embarrassing to be on the receiving end of. Now it was pleasant, enjoyable, Cassandra felt happy as she had not in a while. It was not the jubilation that came from narrowly escaping a tragedy as had been the case all too often, it was a happiness that came from peace and with some hope for what was to come.

When Rapunzel was finished she handed the drawing over to Cassandra. It was a simple piece, in it Cassandra stood tall parting a wave of darkness around her. Cassandra looked up from the painting to meet Rapunzel’s eyes and smiled. “Raps, I’m not sure what all the right art words to describe it are, but I lo-” Cassandra was interrupted mid sentence by Rapunzel stretching up to briefly kiss her on the lips.

Rapunzel stepped back and walked over to where the potion had been left.”Cass I want to say thank you too. Not just for being willing to open up but for everything you’ve done looking out for me out here.” The drawing had fallen to the ground as Cassandra touched her own lips in wonder. “I’ve never been the easiest to look after, and it sounds like I’ve been extra troublesome out here on the road, but I know that as long as we’re together everything will be okay.” Rapunzel lifted the bottle to her lips as Cassandra finally processed what had happened. “I hope that I’ll realize how wonderful you are again after this.” She drank the potion.  
“Bye Cass.”


End file.
